Teatro Paraguas is pleased to present Daphne’s Dive, a play by Quiara Alegria Hudes which premiered in New York at the Signature Theatre in April 2016.

In a tucked-away corner of north Philadelphia, six regulars gather at a quiet neighborhood watering hole. Over a period of twenty years, they turn their collective memories into a vivacious mythology. The tales they would rather forget, however, keep sneaking up on them and tapping them hard on the collective shoulder. At Daphne’s Dive, an aloe plant, a girl’s sneaker, a stiff drink, and mounds of trash become talismanic treasures to a group of outsiders trying to be “in” together. Their camaraderie provides a fragile bulwark against the issues of child neglect, addiction, social protest, and sexual abuse, which prowl all around outside the bar.

Quiara Alegría Hudes is a playwright and composer, born in 1977 in Philadelphia to a Jewish father and Puerto Rican mother. She wrote the book for the musical In the Heights. Her play Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful. Quiara’s other plays include Yemaya’s Belly (2005), 26 Miles (2009), The Happiest Song Plays Last (2013), Lulu’s Golden Shoes (2015), and Miss You Like Hell (2016). Teatro Paraguas produced Water By The Spoonful in 2014 and Yemaya’s Belly in 2015.

Sheryl Bailey has worked as Staff Producer at the Mark Taper Forum (MTF), Associate Managing Artistic Director at the Western Stage Theater Company (CA), directing/writing for Santa Fe Stages (NM) and many independent artistic projects, including Clouds of Joy by Chris Calloway/Sheryl Bailey, and Time Enough by Robert Benjamin. She has many successful productions as the former Producing Coordinator for MTF’s New Works Festival and Producer of MTF’s Other Voices Chautauqua.

Tickets: $20 General admission$12 Limited incomeThursday April 5 is pay-what-you-wish

Reservations: 505-424-1601www.TeatroParaguas.org

“Daphne’s Dive has a fierce compassion for its characters and an ardent love for Philadelphia’s diversity . . . there’s an unassailable heart to Hudes’ work.”—The Guardian (U.S.)

“Hudes has a fine grasp of the friction created by the social tectonic plates that shift according to thew waves of gentrification and governance. Each of these characters is good company.” —deadline.com

“ . . . a slow-burning, vibrantly sketched portrait of a scruffy North Philly booze joint . . . as much a portrait of a gentrifying community as a splintering group of friends.”—Time Out (New York)

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers’ Tax, McCune Foundation, and the Tyson Revocable Trust.